I got my first fairphone. It is FP6 with Android, but I bought it to steer away from Android and iOS, so decided to change the OS to e OS. It is not brand new, but it has not been used by anyone so there was no data on it and I decided to give it a try and switch to e OS.
I used the official web-based step-by-step installer from eOS and it all went smoothly until I finally reached step 22 of 24. Then it got stuck on as above. I still can change START to RECOVERY MODE, POWER OFF and RESTART BOOTLOADER but whichever I choose, it always leads me to the same sad screen…
It says that the device is unlocked, but dunno if this changes much.
I should note that I have not disabled the phone PIN nor simcard PIN, which, as I read afterwards, should be done for the whole process to proceed smoothly. I was using MacOS for unlocking and installation.
I don’t know what to do now, I read some similar stories here and on eOS forum, but they are always a little different, which is why I decided to ask for help here.
So, is it bricked? Have I inadverently damaged sth I paid quite a hefty price here in Poland? If there’s still some hope for it, what should I do now?
Thanks for the reply. You mean, install it manually? This step by step installation required some interaction with the phone, but now I can only do it via the PC, right?
Like yvmuell said, you could try the web-installer again from the beginning. If this does not work then I would suggest to reinstall FPOS and then try to flash e/os manually following this guide
I did it recently with with a windows laptop and it went pretty smoothly. It took an hour or so with all the rebooting of the phone and going through the initial setup every time, though I think if you don’t setup anything it will go faster.
Thanks, both of you, for being so responsive. Sure thing, I will try that, but I don’t know what I did wrong last time and wouldn’t like to repeat that. Now that I am reading about these rollbacks, maybe it has sth to do with that? I read somewhere that when deinstalling the previous OS, it should be the most up to date that there is, but now I am reading that it is not the case, and that the e OS should be newer than the Android which was already intalled on my phone. That would be a shame, cuz I think that Android’s security patch was from yesterday, so I guess I should wait for the new Security Patch from eOS, to make sure it is more recent that the Android I just flashed, right?
Before installing, always verify that the /e/OS rollback date (the 5th of its SPL month) is greater than or equal to your device’s current Security Patch Level.
Then you have this installation found on the e/os doc.
If indeed the new security was released and installed yesterday, then you would have to wait until e/os makes the update.
Thx, no going back, I will wait for the new e OS SPL; I can still use my old phone for the most basic stuff, some digital detox has never done any harm. I will keep you posted if the problem got solved.
Maybe nothing, however I dont know what step 22 is. the webinstaller isnt perfect. As long as you dont lock the bootloader the SPL isnt doing much, so could be older without doing harm. If you want to relock its better wo wait
So, to make it absolutely clear, installing /e/OS with an older Security Patch than the Android I updated my phone to just before I started the procedure of switching from Android to /e/OS should be OK, as long as I don’t relock my phone?
And this cannot be the cause of my problems, I mean the fact that the installation of /e/OS did not succeed??
So if I manage to install now the /e/OS (that has the older SPL than the current (and already installed on my phone before I decided to change OS) Android, it should all be fine, as long as I do not relock the phone, right?
And if I decide to relock the phone one day, I will just need to update (is that easy or prompts and terminals again?) my SPL on the e/OS and then, once I am sure that my SPL on e/OS is more recent than Android, I can then safely relock??
Sorry for all these questions, me no engineer.
Sorry, step 22 (24 in total) is when the web-based installer ( /e/OS Installer ) is meant to finally install the /e/OS on your Fairphone, after unlocking the boot loader, getting all necessary codes, etc.
Hey, I had issues with the web installer when I tried it about a month ago, close to the end of the process as well. It left my phone stuck in a boot loop, that was not a fun afternoon… Luckily I could still access fastboot, so I managed to flash with the latest /e/OS build from there.
Anyway, it’s as you say:
installing /e/OS with an older Security Patch than the Android I updated my phone to just before I started the procedure of switching from Android to /e/OS should be OK, as long as I don’t relock my phone?
Yes, it’s only safe to relock your phone if you install an OS with a newer security patch than what you had before.
so if I manage to install now the /e/OS (that has the older SPL than the current (and already installed on my phone before I decided to change OS) Android, it should all be fine, as long as I do not relock the phone, right?
Right.
And if I decide to relock the phone one day, I will just need to update (is that easy or prompts and terminals again?) my SPL on the e/OS and then, once I am sure that my SPL on e/OS is more recent than Android, I can then safely relock??
More or less, yes. Just wait until the next version of /e/OS is published and install it. I’m not sure about /e/OS specifically, but I think it should be enough to install the update directly from your phone whenever it’s available. You will need to use command prompt/terminal to relock the phone though. You can find several guides in this forum for when the time comes.
Also keep in mind that relocking the bootloader will erase all your phone data, so make sure to backup important stuff before doing anything.
Just wanted to thank y’all! It’s working now and it was easier than it seemed. I am not relocking it yet, waiting for the newer release of /e/OS to make sure it’s safe.
At step 22 of 24 of the installation of e/os/ i cant connect the phone to the laptop . The phone is in the screen on fastboot mode. I can change to ,start,power off,recover mode or restart bootloader.
Nothing works…….how to proceed?
[Edit moderator: removed the photo as it was showing your IMEI number.]
Yep, I used piero-e’s instructions and it worked for me. I know that using terminals an prompts may seem daunting to non-IT people, but it turned out to be really simple even for stupid me. And someone whose ancestor may have written The Autumn of the Middle Ages should have no problems at all
